Guests

Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Juan is looking at camcorders, and wants to know what one is best. Leo says that camcorders are becoming rather obsolete these days because users tend to record on their smartphone or via a camera like a DSLR or point and shoot. But for long speeches, sermons, etc, a camcorder is a must because it won't time out.

Robert has a Sony NEX-7 and wants to use it for time-lapse photography. Leo says the NEX-7 is an excellent sensor with its huge APS-C sensor and the micro four-thirds lenses. It's light and compact, too. Robert says he can get apps for time-lapse, but the automatic settings are giving him problems.

Leo says that if the camera is giving him trouble, he can use Apple Quicktime 7 Pro. He can just import the folder of images and set up a time-lapse through Quicktime. Adobe Premiere and possibly Photoshop will also do this.

Rex is frustrated with email these days. Leo says that email is broken. There's spam, mailing lists, reminders, and more. It makes it very hard to wade through the clutter.

GMail is really the best option in dealing with this challenge. Gmail has a priority inbox, and can sort messages via social tabs, reminders and notifications, and promotions. It also will guess what his primary folders are, and can sort out person to person conversations. He can also drag an email to a preferred folder and gmail will remember where it should go.

Kevin is trying to make a really old Sony Vaio laptop with Windows XP usable for his mom, and is wondering what he could do with it. Leo says why not put Linux on it? He likes Puppy Linux or Darn Small Linux. It works great on older hardware and will serve to protect it while it's online.

However, Leo says that since he's going to work it out for his mother, a tablet is a better option for her. The iPad or Google Nexus 7 are both great options. They would be way more powerful that that old laptop. Even a smartphone would.

Eric would like to hide his IP address while he's online. Leo says that the IP Address is like a return address that the internet needs in order to route traffic to his computer. It's hard to completely hide it, but he can anonymize it.

He should look into TOR (The Onion Router) which will anonymize his IP address. It is slower and the NSA has cracked it, though. Some believe a VPN is a good option, but Leo says that someone at the VPN company still knows who he is. Frankly, Leo says it's foolish to try and hide an IP address. The NSA knows who he is because his ISP knows who he is.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Dillon is interested in Google Glass, but he wants to know how it works out in rural areas. Leo says he can't use it without connection via an Android phone and Bluetooth. Without that, he could take pictures, but he wouldn't be able to upload them. That would just be a mighty expensive camera.

Google Glass isn't even out to the public at this point, so things may change by the time it does hit the market.

Richard is concerned that Google will read his email and use his activity for advertising. Leo says that Google only has computers read email, and it does this to filter spam. No human is reading through emails.

The clause that Google will use his activity to advertise means that Google will search his email for keywords, like it does spam filtering, and will customize ads on his page based on that activity. So it's for stuff he could use. It's important to note that nearly every other ISP and service does this as well. And he's getting gmail for free.

Christine is looking at getting the Magic Jack. Leo says that Magic Jack gives the user access to phone calls via voice over internet protocol (VOIP). It's great because it can go wherever she is. The downside is that 911 doesn't know where she is in case of an emergency. Leo still recommends a land line just in case.

Having said that, Magic Jack is fine. However she'll have to pay a nominal yearly fee. Leo also likes Skype, Obihai (works with Google Voice which doesn't support 911), and Ooma.

Jim needs to get an audio book to another device from his iPod, which has broken. Leo says that the only way to do it is to download it to another Apple "iDevice." He should be able to go into iTunes, look for the little "cloud" next to the title, tap it, and it should download again. He can also download through the iTunes desktop client.

Jim is also interested in Ting. Leo says that TING is an MVNO that resells Sprint service on a month to month contract. Ting is also a sponsor of the Tech Guy podcast.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Pete wants a camera that he can stream little league hockey games on. Leo says he'll need a camera with live HDMI out. Most video cameras will do this, and with excellent quality too. Then he'll need a laptop that is able to take HDMI in and then stream it over the internet. The camera really isn't the hard part. Leo uses the Canon Vixia HFR400 and the Canon Vixia G20 at the Brick House Studios for TWiT.

Will a MacBook Pro work for the streaming? Leo says sure, but he should make sure it exceeds the specs of his streaming app. Also, the Blackmagic Atem is a switcher that would allow him to use multiple cameras. It isn't cheap, though.

Steve called in to bring up the point that law enforcement can drive around and scan people's license plates. Is it possible to have a non-scannable license plate? Leo says it's probably highly illegal to do this, but there are UV lights that can be installed on the license plate that would thwart a camera's ability to take a photo of it. It's non-visible light, but when a camera tried to get a photo, it would just show up as a bright white area. Leo would be very surprised though if this wasn't illegal, and it probably falls under the same law that prevents people from being able to obstruct the view of the license plate.

John heard the phone call about streaming little league hockey games and he does just that! He does it through a company, which sends him all the equipment except the camera itself, which he provides. The service is FastHockey. It's free to the producer, but they charge those who view.

What he would like to do is host his video highlights. He used to use Posterous to get it up to YouTube and other sites. Leo says there's a service called PostHaven.com, which is like a pay version of what Posterous was. It's run by former Posterous employees, but they charge $5 a month. It uses the same back end as Posterous did, and does the same thing, only they are slowly bringing out difference capabilities. So it's not exactly like Posterous yet, but it can still do a lot. It can post by email and web and works with photos, music, video and documents. It can keep private sites with passwords. It autoposts to Twitter and Facebook. It also has an image gallery upload, editing features, and commenting.

Richard bought a new Google Nexus 7 and he's wondering what to do with it. Leo says it's a great content consumption device, including reading ebooks, watching movies, listening to music, surfing the internet, sharing on Facebook, and writing emails. Leo says the first thing to do is create or log into a GMail account. That single sign in will do everything on Google for him. Then he can go to the Google Play store and find some fun apps to play with.

Richard's hard drive crashed, and unfortunately he doesn't have all of his data backed up. He had SuperDuper, but wasn't using it regularly. Leo says an SSD is different from a spinning drive. When it's dead, it's really dead. So the only thing he can do is get another and start over. It's not like he can run SpinRite and maybe fix it. An SSD is completely different.

Leo suggests paying for the scheduling feature of SuperDuper so he can schedule automatic and regular backups.

Aaron has a friend who needs to be totally reliant on voice command. Is there a smartphone that can do that? Leo says that the main issue is apps, and using apps require touch. He could use the Motorola Moto-X with Google Now, but it'll be limited.

Leo recommends contacting the Foundation for the Blind, an independent living resource center. He could also try Lighthouse for the Blind. They're really good at customizing the technology for the need. Doctor Mom in the ChatRoom recommends HelenKeller.org.

Anthony has the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and wants to know if the Note III is worth getting. Leo says the Note III was announced this week at IFA. It has a 5.7" screen, but not bigger than the Note 2. It's got a stitched leather back. It features a new pop-up menu when hovering the stylus over the screen. Multi-tasking improved, it has 3GB RAM, a 1280x1080p resolution screen, and a more powerful processor. It may just be worth upgrading to. It'll be here in early October.

Dennis is older and he's a bit overwhelmed by all the technology. He owns a business and he has to use an email device that texts. Leo suggests the Samsung Galaxy Note II because it's a phone with email and is large enough for reading. Leo got one for his mother and she loves it.

This Week in Tech News

There's a huge security flaw in WINRAR, that will enable hackers to take over your computer. So Leo advises that if you use WINRAR to zip/unzip your files, that you should update to the latest beta version. But you have to go to the WINRAR site and manually download the update. There is no automatic update.

Accusing Apple of anti competitive behavior, Spotify's music streaming service says that the company charges a 30% commission for subscriptions through the Apple store, while charging 30% less for their own music service.

Leo bought the Samsung Galaxy S10+, a phone with 10TB of storage, 12GB of RAM, and a ceramic back. For $1500. Leo says it's a really nice phone. Reviews are mixed, but buyers seem to like it, with preorders doubling the last generation. Samsung has avoided "the notch," but instead, they have a "hole punch," which houses two selfie cameras. Is that any different than the notch? Not really. It's also nearly as big as the Note 9 and has the best screen on the market. But Leo says it's so fast that it's hyper-responsive. It reacts to being touched on the edge. It also has three cameras on the back. It also has an under-screen fingerprint ID, which isn't very fast and requires a little patience. AND IT HAS A HEADPHONE JACK!

In a new announcement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook is moving towards a more privacy-focused experience, including encryption, private groups, and more. Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook doesn't have a reputation for security and privacy, and they plan to change all that. With sharing on Facebook going down by 25%, especially with younger users, Zuckerberg says that the social media network is going to move from a town square, to your own living room. It's a serious PIVOT. Leo says that Zuckerberg has made promises like this before, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. Is it possible to have a privacy-focused Facebook? Only time will tell, but Leo says it's a good idea.